Thursday, January 29, 2009

Lakshmanrao Bhide Memorial Lecture

Chanakya insisted that wealth creation is crucial for establishing a welfare state. In the last several decades we have been able to progress economically well. Today India has more billionaires than any other country in Asia. But it also has three Nigeria’s in it; 30 crore people live below poverty line—earning less than a dollar a day. 40 per cent of world’s poor live in India.

Advent of 21st century has witnessed dramatic developments. Most important of them is the collapse of American hegemony which was very fondly cherished by the likes of Fukuyama when they predicted a ‘Uni-Polar World’ after the demise of the USSR. Far from becoming uni-polar, the world has increasingly become multi-polar. New power-centres have emerged that changed the face of the earth and also the long-standing perceptions.

One can say this is the concept of dharma put in a western context. Chankya’s Artha Shastra to Gandhiji’s Hind Swaraj (1909) talk precisely in the same language. In Hind Swaraj, Gandhiji takes to task forms of democracy found in Western countries which are often upheld as shining models to the rest of the world.

Chanakya and Chandrayaan are two significant signposts nearly 2,400 years apart between which flourished a great civilisation called Bharat or India. Chanakya was the epitome of the grand Indian vision of politics and economics, which he described in a single word Arth Shastra. His treatise by that name, which he set out to pen after retiring from the post of Maha Amaatya in the kingdom of Chandragupta Mourya, remains to this day a pioneering work on statecraft, polity and economy. It is not surprising that there are scholars working on Chanakya’s Arth Shastra in universities of USA, France, Germany and many more countries. What is really sad is the fact that it is hard to find any in our own universities.

Chandrayaan—the celestial journey set off on October 22 by our own satellite—represents India’s grand urge to conquer not just this world but the entire universe. In a historic event, the Indian space programme achieved a unique feat on November 14, 2008 with the placing of Indian tricolour on the Moon’s surface on Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru’s birthday. The Indian flag was painted on the sides of Moon Impact Probe (MIP), one of the 11 payloads of Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft, that successfully hit the lunar surface at 20:31 hrs (8:31 pm) IST on that day. This is the first Indian built object to reach the surface of the moon. The point of MIP’s impact was near the Moon’s South Polar Region. Our satellite has already reached about 200 km close to the Moon and soon its other equipment will be launched on to the surface of it. According to Dr Annadurai, the Project Director of Chandrayaan, we would be able to send our first manned mission to the Moon by 2020 CE.

Through the ages, the Moon, our closest celestial body has aroused curiosity in our mind much more than any other objects in the sky. This led to scientific study of the Moon, driven by the desire and quest for knowledge. This is also reflected in the ancient verse:

Roa lkse iz fpfdrks euh"kkA Roa jft"B euq usf"k iUFkkeAA

(O Moon! We should be able to know you through our intellect. You enlighten us through the right path.)

Rigveda Part-1.91/1 (About 2000 years BC)

Several nations have attempted manned and unmanned missions to the Moon and claimed various victories; but it still remained a mystery that has the potential to open floodgates of knowledge about the universe and its creation. Today we also joined that group with our successful launching of the Chandrayaan.

Chanakya and Chandrayaan signify the vibrance and virility of our great civilisation. It has existed before Chanakya and it will continue to exist after Chandrayaan.

“Yunana Misra Roma….”—‘Greeks, Egyptians and Romans etc have all perished; yet, there is something in this soil that makes it eternal’—exclaimed Md. Iqbal in his famous poem Saare Jahaan se Acchha. That ‘something’ was described by Swami Vivekananda eloquently when he said: “Every nation has a destiny to fulfil, duty to perform and mission to accomplish.” We have a universal mission the accomplishment of which is the grand vision of our civilisation.

August 15, 1947 saw the dawn of India’s freedom. In a very significant message given on that day Sri Aurobindo spoke of his five dreams that in a nutshell present our grand global vision: “Indeed, on this day I can watch almost all the world movements which I hoped to see fulfilled in my life time, though then they looked like impracticable dreams, arriving at fruition or on their way to achievement.”

The first of these dreams was a revolutionary movement which would create a free and united India. India today is free but she has not achieved unity.... But by whatever means, in whatever way, the division must go; unity must and will be achieved, for it is necessary for the greatness of India’s future.

Another dream was for the resurgence and liberation of the peoples of Asia and her return to her great role in the progress of human civilisation. Asia has arisen; large parts are now quite free or are at this moment being liberated: its other still subject or partly subject parts are moving through whatever struggles towards freedom....

The third dream was a world-union forming the outer basis of a fairer, brighter and nobler life for all mankind.... A new spirit of oneness will take hold of the human race.

Another dream, the spiritual gift of India to the world has already begun. India’s spirituality is entering Europe and America in an ever-increasing measure....

The final dream was a step in evolution which would raise man to a higher and larger consciousness and begin the solution of the problems which have perplexed and vexed him since he first began to think and to dream of individual perfection and a perfect society.”

It is with this vision that this civilisation has survived for so many centuries weathering so many storms.

In order for us to realise our vision it is necessary to understand what is happening in the world. Today, the world stands at a crossroads; it stands confused and directionless.

About two decades ago when the Communist Soviet regime collapsed leading to the disintegration of Soviet Union utter panic and disbelief had taken over the thinking world.

Soviet collapse, preceded or followed by the collapse of almost all the Communist regimes led some like Francis Fukuyama to proclaim in a victorious tone that it was the “end of history”. Fukuyama explained: “I argued that liberal democracy may constitute the end point of mankind’s ideological evolution and the final form of human government and as such constituted the end of history.”

Fukuyama’s prediction that the end of Communism heralded ended of all conflict in the world was contested not only by the subsequent events, but scholars like Samuel Huntington as well. Conflict continued and finally it has engulfed the entire world after the collapse of twin towers on 11/9/2002 in New York.

The central problem is not so much with the political theories, but with the core worldview itself. The Western worldview, whether it is Communism or Capitalism or even Islamism, requires ‘The Other’—an enemy—to perpetuate its existence. Without the ‘Other’ there is no identity for its existence. This was explained by Samuel Huntington as the “Clash of Civilisations”, which see each other as enemies.

“It is my hypothesis that the fundamental source of conflict in this new world will not be primarily ideological or primarily economic. The great divisions among humankind and the dominating source of conflict will be cultural. Nation states will remain the most powerful actors in world affairs, but the principal conflicts of global politics will occur between nations and groups of different civilizations. The clash of civilizations will dominate global politics. The fault lines between civilizations will be the battle lines of the future.” The Clash of Civilizations? (Samuel P. Huntington, Foreign Affairs, Summer 1993)

In 84 BC when Rome defeated its last serious enemy, Mithradates, Sulla asked: “Now that the universe offers us no more enemies, what may be the fate of the Republic?” A few decades after, the Roman Republic fell to Caesarism.

“We are doing something really terrible to you—we are depriving you of an enemy”—Georgiy Arbatov, Advisor to Gorbochev to Americans in 1987.

“Without the Cold War, what is the point of being an American?”— John Updike

Advent of 21st century has witnessed dramatic developments. Most important of them is the collapse of American hegemony which was very fondly cherished by the likes of Fukuyama when they predicted a ‘Uni-Polar World’ after the demise of the USSR. Far from becoming uni-polar, the world has increasingly become multi-polar. New power-centres have emerged that changed the face of the earth and also the long-standing perceptions.

Take for example the following facts:

World’s tallest building is in Taipei to be replaced shortly by Dubai;

Richest man is a Mexican;

Largest MNC is Chinese;

Biggest plane is built in Russia and Ukraine;

Leading refinery is in India;

Largest factories are in China;

Richest endowment fund is in UAE;

Number one casino in Macao;

Biggest movie industry in terms of tickets sold is Bollywood;

Till ten years ago America used to be on top in everything;

But no longer! Of the ten biggest malls only one is in America;

And the world’s biggest mall is in Beijing;

“We are moving into post-American world”—explains Fareed Zakaria, Editor of the News Week, USA in his latest book The Post American World.

This new emergence of power centres was described by Huntington as “Uni-Multipolarity” while the Chinese describe it as “Many powers—One super power”.

Once a Communist country, China today emerged as the third economic super power.

Father of modern China Deng Xiaoping said to have famously exhorted once that: “It doesn’t matter if it is a black cat or a white cat as long as it can catch mice it is a good cat”. What he meant was that let the facts not ideology guide China.

In 1978 China produced 200 air conditioners. In 2005 it has made 48 million; it exports in one day today what it had done in the whole of 1978.

Ruthless pragmatism guides that country today. Many Chinese foreign policy analysts call themselves “Christian Confucians”. For the grand Olympics opening ceremony it chose Steven Spielberg, an American to design the entire event. An India or a Japan can’t imagine that in their country.

A great political awakening is seen all over the world. Upsurge of nationalism is conspicuous everywhere. A scramble for resources has already begun. A classic example is the scramble for oil and natural gas. What the OPEC countries tried to do last year is fresh in our minds. Recently Russia suspended gas supply to Europe for a few days creating near-collapse of several economies.

China is another major rising power that has the potential to upset many. “Let China sleep, for when China wakes, she will shake the world”— warned Napoleon long ago.

Today China’s area of influence is tremendously increasing. In the entire African continent China has emerged as an unquestioned king. In November 2006 President Hu Jintao held a summit on Sino-African relations. All 48 countries that have diplomatic ties with China attended. Most of them were represented by no less than Presidents and Prime Ministers. It was the largest African summit ever held outside Africa.

Today, China has occupied economic, political and military space in Africa that once belonged to Britain, France or USA. “China is an inspiration for us” declared the Prime Minister of Ethiopia Meles Zenavi. China buys platinum and iron ore from Zimbabwe and sells weapons and radio-jammers. China is Mugabe’s important supporter on the UN Security Council.

In fact China is following a strategic path that emerges from the oldest confusion thinker Sun Zi, who argued that ‘every battle is won or lost before it is ever fought’. It is trying to manipulate a situation where the outcome is always and inevitably in favour of it.

These growing power centres solely guided by national interests are making multilateral agencies like the United Nations increasingly irrelevant. Their irrelevance can be partly attributed to their archaic structure as well. The 2nd and 3rd largest economies— Japan and Germany—are not members of the Security Council. Largest democracy India too has no membership. No Latin American or African country too is a member.

The IMF is always headed by a European and the World Bank by an American. Will forces of global growth turn into forces of global disorder and disintegration?

It is here that India has a role to play. We can take a leaf or two out of the wisdom of great Indian scholars including Chanakya and Gandhiji to evolve a new global order.

Today, the world comes closer to what these wise men have said before. Having realised that democracy as it is offered today doesn’t serve containing conflicts in the world the Western thinkers started talking about new concepts like ‘Constitutional Liberalism’.

In fact democracy has always remained a fascinating subject for discussion for centuries. It was described as the second best form of government, the first being yet to be found.

“Democracy is a fantastically over-hyped idea. Far from being a guarantor of freedom, or even the same as freedom, as many young Americans are taught, democracy can be freedom’s worst enemy. Democracy is flourishing; liberty is not” bemoans Fareed Zakaria.

One can say this is the concept of dharma put in a western context. Chankya’s Artha Shastra to Gandhiji’s Hind Swaraj (1909) talk precisely in the same language. In Hind Swaraj, Gandhiji takes to task forms of democracy found in Western countries which are often upheld as shining models to the rest of the world.

[It] seeks to increase bodily comforts, and it fails miserably even in doing so. This civilisation is irreligion [adharma], and it has taken such a hold on the people in Europe that those who are in its appear to be half mad... They keep up their energy by intoxication.”

“I do not regard England, or for that matter America, as free countries. They are free after their own fashion: free to hold in bondage the colored races of the earth.... According to my own interpretation of that freedom, I am constrained to say: they are strangers to that freedom which their [own] poets and teachers have described”.

Plato talked of ‘Philosopher Kings’. Chanakya wanted the rulers to be ‘wise, disciplined by learning’. “Spiritual development is paramount for internal strength and character. Material pleasures and comforts come second” he insisted.

In fact it was Chanakya who propounded a democratic model in 300 BCE. “King has no individuality of his own. He is for the people and of the people.” In essence we are the repositories of a great wisdom handed down to us from the times of the Vedas.

But again the mute question is: Are we qualified to preach it to the world?

Chanakya insisted that wealth creation is crucial for establishing a welfare state. In the last several decades we have been able to progress economically well. Today India has more billionaires than any other country in Asia. But it also has three Nigeria’s in it; 30 crore people live below poverty line—earning less than a dollar a day. 40 per cent of world’s poor live in India. In 1960 India’s per capita GDP was higher than China’s and 70 per cent that of South Korea’s; today it is less than two-fifths of China’s. South Korea is twenty times larger. In the UN Human Development Index India ranks 128 out of 177 countries—behind Syria, Sri Lanka, Vietnam and even Dominican Republic. Female literacy rate in India is below 50 per cent.

It is perhaps the biggest paradox of our times—a great civilisation with abundant wisdom and a society eager, confident and ready to take on the world; yet a system so inefficient and corrupt that it cripples all creativity. Whatever India has achieved is in spite of the Government, not because of it.

Unfortunately for India, its own wisdom was never found to be acceptable. We followed the flawed discourses of the West, copying and creating hybrid versions of their models and presuming that we are on the right course. We ignored the wise caution our elders had to offer to us.

In a letter written to Nehru in 1945 Gandhiji, picking up Nehru’s suggestion regarding the importance of human and social development, had fully agreed that it was crucial to “bring about man’s highest intellectual, economic, political and moral development,” that is, the “flourishing” of all human abilities. The basic issue was how to accomplish this goal. For Gandhiji this was impossible without thorough attention to dharma and without social engagement and responsibility. Echoing Aristotle and countering the modern Western focus on self-centered individualism he wrote: “Man is not born to live in isolation but is essentially a social animal independent and interdependent. No one can or should ride on another’s back.”

Rishi Aurobindo was much more prophetic and forthright in his advice two years after Independence.

“...It would be a tragic irony of fate if India were to throw away her spiritual heritage at the very moment when in the rest of the world more and more are turning towards her for spiritual help and a saving Light. This must not and will surely not happen; but it cannot be said that the danger is not there. There are indeed other numerous and difficult problems that face this country or will very soon face it. No doubt we will win through, but we must not disguise from ourselves the fact that after these long years of subjection and its cramping and impairing effects a great inner as well as outer liberation and change, a vast inner and outer progress is needed if we are to fulfil India’s true destiny.”

(Extracts from the speech delivered by the author at Lakshmanrao Bhide Memorial Lecture in Mumbai on January 16, 2009.)